Reviews
This volume makes a vital contribution to an academy increasingly focused on questions emerging from the interstices of political theory, philosophy, and the study of religion, and to a broader world struggling to understand and adapt to the changes that have come with globalization and revitalized religion. Each essay is grounded in first-rate scholarship, but none of them plays it safe. Whether offering incisive theoretical reflections on political theology or proposing startling analyses of the French veiling controversy, these essays will change the way we think about religion in a post-secular world. -----Tyler Roberts, Grinnell College, There is no more important topic today than the role of religion in public life. It is vital in both peace and war, debate and consensus, democracy and repression, nationalism and transnational humanitarian action. For anyone wishing to survey the range of theoretical perspectives on this theme, this collection by Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan is indispensable. It offers the single best assemblage of sources for understanding not only political theologies, but issues of pluralism, secularism, and contending ideas of the human that they raise. -----Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council, Political Theologies is an outstanding collection of creative essays on the cutting edge of political theology. The essays bring new and original perspectives that change the terrain and make this volume an indispensable benchmark for future discussions. It is a 'must read' and an invaluable resource for both religious and theological studies. Anyone interested in political theology will be rewarded by its rich diversity. I highly recommend it. -----Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Stillman Professor, Harvard Divinity School, The wholly unanticipated reemergence of religion into the realm of politics and public policy, which is happening all over the world, is puzzling and worrisome to some people. Many explanations for this surprising development have been advanced, none fully satisfactory. Now this volume brings together some of the keenest and best-informed analysis yet available, from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. It sets a new gold standard for future attempts to understand the growing role of religion in the twenty-first century. -----Harvey Cox, Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, "A major lankmark in interdisciplinary studies of religion's function in the public sphere, Political Theologies in now the standard reference in this field that dates back to the second century B.C. but has returned with special urgency in the past decade."--Christianity and Literature "This book...will become increasingly important for the future of pentecostal studies."--Amos Yong, Pneuma ". . . Smart and eclectic . . ."--Journal of Church and State "This splendid volume will be essential reading for anyone who wants to explore the whole terrain of contemporary 'political theologies' through which this question is addressed."--Faith and Theology ". . . the papers vary widely in terms of topic and approach. They are concerned with defining political theologies, exploring pluralism and agonistic reason, and analyzing issues of secularism and democratic republicanism. "--Book News "There is no more important topic today than the role of religion in public life. It is vital in both peace and war, debate and consensus, democracy and repression, nationalism and transnational humanitarian action. For anyone wishing to survey the range of theoretical perspectives on this theme, this collection by Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan is indispensable. It offers the single best assemblage of sources for understanding not only political theologies, but issues of pluralism, secularism, and contending ideas of the human that they raise."--Craig Calhoun, Social Science Reasearch Council "Political Theologies is an outstanding collection of creative essays on the cutting edge of political theology. The essays bring new and original perspectives that change the terrain and make this volume an indispensable benchmark for future discussions. It is a 'must read' and an invaluable resource for both religious and theological studies. Anyone interested in political theology will be rewarded by its rich diversity. I highly recommend it."--Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Stillman Professor, Harvard Divinity School "The wholly unanticipated reemergence of religion into the realm of politics and public policy, which is happening all over the world, is puzzling and worrisome to some people. Many explanations for this surprising development have been advanced, none fully satisfactory. Now this volume brings together some of the keenest and best-informed analysis yet available, from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. It sets a new gold standard for future attempts to understand the growing role of religion in the twenty-first century."--Harvey Cox, Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University "Viewed from any angle, political theology is rough terrain. Numerous divergent efforts to dissociate, calibrate, and realign the domains of the political and the religious have constituted a major preoccupation of the so-called West and its intellectual tradition. The relentless assertion-and immersion-of this tradition in today's globalized world means that it is inevitably engaged and entangled with the condition of the world at its most volatile and consequential. All the more reason to view it from every angle. This voluminous collection is not ultimately motivated by a desire to amass and to represent; instead, it is driven by a passionate spirit that is at once bold, generous, and unnerving."--Tomoko Masuzawa, University of Michigan "Capacious, adventurous, and thorough, this collection of essays addresses the most significant and recalcitrant issues facing the modern world. . . . One reads it with a sense of desperation, for the urgency of the questions is profound, and one comes away from reading with a sense not of relief or gratitude, but of provocation and of possibility."--Rosalind Carmel Morris, Columbia University, This splendid volume will be essential reading for anyone who wants to explore the whole terrain of contemporary 'political theologies' through which this question is addressed., "A major lankmark in interdisciplinary studies of religion's function in the public sphere, Political Theologies in now the standard reference in this field that dates back to the second century B.C. but has returned with special urgency in the past decade."--Christianity and Literature "This book...will become increasingly important for the future of pentecostal studies."--Amos Yong, Pneuma ". . . Smart and eclectic . . ."--Journal of Church and State "This splendid volume will be essential reading for anyone who wants to explore the whole terrain of contemporary 'political theologies' through which this question is addressed."--Faith and Theology ". . . the papers vary widely in terms of topic and approach. They are concerned with defining political theologies, exploring pluralism and agonistic reason, and analyzing issues of secularism and democratic republicanism. "--Book News "There is no more important topic today than the role of religion in public life. It is vital in both peace and war, debate and consensus, democracy and repression, nationalism and transnational humanitarian action. For anyone wishing to survey the range of theoretical perspectives on this theme, this collection by Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan is indispensable. It offers the single best assemblage of sources for understanding not only political theologies, but issues of pluralism, secularism, and contending ideas of the human that they raise."--Craig Calhoun, Social Science Reasearch Council "Political Theologies is an outstanding collection of creative essays on the cutting edge of political theology. The essays bring new and original perspectives that change the terrain and make this volume an indispensable benchmark for future discussions. It is a 'must read' and an invaluable resource for both religious and theological studies. Anyone interested in political theology will be rewarded by its rich diversity. I highly recommend it."--Francis Schssler Fiorenza, Stillman Professor, Harvard Divinity School "The wholly unanticipated reemergence of religion into the realm of politics and public policy, which is happening all over the world, is puzzling and worrisome to some people. Many explanations for this surprising development have been advanced, none fully satisfactory. Now this volume brings together some of the keenest and best-informed analysis yet available, from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. It sets a new gold standard for future attempts to understand the growing role of religion in the twenty-first century."--Harvey Cox, Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University "Viewed from any angle, political theology is rough terrain. Numerous divergent efforts to dissociate, calibrate, and realign the domains of the political and the religious have constituted a major preoccupation of the so-called West and its intellectual tradition. The relentless assertion-and immersion-of this tradition in today's globalized world means that it is inevitably engaged and entangled with the condition of the world at its most volatile and consequential. All the more reason to view it from every angle. This voluminous collection is not ultimately motivated by a desire to amass and to represent; instead, it is driven by a passionate spirit that is at once bold, generous, and unnerving."--Tomoko Masuzawa, University of Michigan "Capacious, adventurous, and thorough, this collection of essays addresses the most significant and recalcitrant issues facing the modern world. . . . One reads it with a sense of desperation, for the urgency of the questions is profound, and one comes away from reading with a sense not of relief or gratitude, but of provocation and of possibility."--Rosalind Carmel Morris, Columbia University, If the idea of political theology seemed anachronistic to many liberal thinkers in the twentieth century, in the twenty-first century-and especially since September 11-it has become urgent and unavoidable, essential for making sense of our current global situation. Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan's Political Theologies constitutes the single most important collection of essays to date on a topic that is at once classic and contemporary, foundational and aporetic. These essays approach the multiple intersections of the political and the theological in the ancient, modern, and 'post-secular' worlds as both positive, mutually reinforcing, and necessary relationships, and violent, contradictory, and even impossible encounters. De Vries's Introduction masterfully surveys the varieties of the political-theological conjunction and presents a powerful analysis of its immanent excesses and paradoxical reversals, its terrifying histories and its transformative, even redemptive potentiality. -----Kenneth Reinhard, University of California, Los Angeles, This book...will become increasingly important for the future of pentecostal studies. -----Amos Yong, Pneuma, "Viewed from any angle, political theology is rough terrain. Numerous divergent efforts to dissociate, calibrate, and realign the domains of the political and the religious have constituted a major preoccupation of the so-called West and its intellectual tradition. The relentless assertion-and immersion-of this tradition in today's globalized world means that it is inevitably engaged and entangled with the condition of the world at its most volatile and consequential. All the more reason to view it from every angle. This voluminous collection is not ultimately motivated by a desire to amass and to represent; instead, it is driven by a passionate spirit that is at once bold, generous, and unnerving." --Tomoko Masuzawa, University of Michigan
